Workshop Overview

Note: This workshop has already taken place.

This workshop will provide geoscience faculty with the essential information and resources needed to effectively design and deliver a service learning project in their own course work. During the course of the workshop we will explore the fundamental components of a successful service learning project, examples of numerous kinds of service learning activities, practical advice on "how to" develop a service learning project, and participants will have the opportunity to design their own service learning course or activity. The workshop will include a series of web-based synchronous and asynchronous sessions, including presentations from expert practitioners of service learning, panel discussions, on-line chat sessions, and time for guided individual or small group work.

Workshop Goals

This workshop will help participants prepare a service learning activity by:

Introducing the principles and practices of effective service learning instructional activities.
Providing examples of successful service learning projects, and practical advice about "what works."
Providing participants with the opportunity to design and develop their own service learning courses or activities.
Developing collections of supporting resources (URLs, articles).
Supporting a community of scholars interested in continued work on service learning in the geoscience curriculum.

Dates

This workshop will take place on February 3-5 and 8-9, 2010. This is an online workshop and there is no face-to-face component. The workshop will consist of both synchronous and asynchronous components throughout the 5-day span of the workshop.

Expectations

The goal of this workshop is to support participants in designing or improving a service learning activity that they will use in their course. To this end participants are expected to:

In advance of the workshop, submit an example of a service learning activity that they have used in their teaching and would like to share with others or that they would like to develop over the course of the workshop.
During the workshop, complete or revise a service learning activity that they will use in their teaching in the upcoming year. You will receive feedback on this activity during the workshop.
In the year following the workshop, implement the service learning activity you designed, or another activity available through the Cutting Edge website and complete a review of that activity using the observational protocol provided.

In addition, participants are expected to participate in all workshop activities, including pre-workshop preparations, scheduled workshop sessions, online discussions and small group work, and follow-on activities. Online workshops have many advantages, especially in your ability to access all of your instructional resources from your home office. However, the downside is that there are also many local distractions. So please be sure to block out times in your calendar for all scheduled workshop activities, just as if you were attending face-to-face meetings at those times. We anticipate that in total, the workshop will require 3-4 hours of your time each of the 5 scheduled days and that you will want to set aside some time on the weekend to work on your activity. Your focused attention will be appreciated by all.

For a detailed list of items to be completed by each participant, see the participant checklist.

Costs

There is a $50 workshop fee, payable with your registration and due by Jan 25, 2010.

Application and Selection Criteria

Applications must be submitted by December 20, 2009 (Note: the application period has been extended; new applications are still being accepted). The workshop size is limited to 40 participants. Participants will be selected based on the quality of their applications. Workshop speakers will be drawn from the participant pool based on their activity or course submissions and their applications. The final list of participants will be established with the goal of assembling a diverse group reflecting a wide range of institutional types and instructional settings. Preference is given to applicants who hold faculty positions at colleges and universities. Applicants will be notified of selection by late December. For more information visit the general information for workshop participants page.